Electrical socket contacts



Oct. 23, 1962 R. BARNES ELECTRICAL SOCKET CONTACTS Filed March 14, 1960United States Patent 3,060,403 ELECTRICAL SOCKET CONTACTS Robert Barnes,Bristol, England, assignor to Associated Electrical Industries Limited,London, England, a British company Filed Mar. 14, 1960, Ser. No. 14,840Claims priority, application Great Britain Mar. 19, 1959 6 Claims. (Cl.339-258) This invention relates to electrical socket contacts.

It is concerned with socket contacts of a kind provided with interiorsurfaces arranged to make electrical contact pressure against the sideof a pin when inserted into the socket. It has particular application insocket contacts adapted to receive pins of rectangular cross-section.

According to the present invention a socket contact comprises a singlesheet of metal bent to form a trough extending across the sheet, whichtrough has an open base extending along a portion thereof to allowthrough passage of a pin in a direction generally perpendicular to theplane of the sheet, the sides of said open base portion being severedfrom the remainder of the trough form tongues capable of alignment withsuch a pin when inserted.

The tongues may have integral ears extending in the opposite directionto the direction of insertion of a pin, which ears serve to guide a pinbetween the tongues.

Further according to the present invention the method of forming asocket contact comprises cutting a sheet of metal to form a generallyH-shaped cutout pattern, bending the tongues so formed in the samedirection away from the plane of the sheet to leave side bridges anddrawing the side bridges perpendicular to the plane of the sheet tobring the two tongues together until the gap between them is such thatthe tongues will resiliently contact a pin of requisite dimensions wheninserted between the tongues.

In order that the invention may be more fully understood reference willnow be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a cut-out blank for making a socket contact, and

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a socket contact made from the blankof FIG. 1.

Referring now to FIG. 1 a rectangular sheet of metal 1 of Phosphorbronze, brass or other suitable material has two spaced apart parallelslots 2 and 3 cut out therefrom parallel to opposite sides of the sheet.Slots 2 and 3 are joined by a transverse slot 4 positioned so as to givea generally H-shaped cut-out pattern in sheet 1. It will be seen thattwo tongues 5 and 6 are formed in the sheet between slots 2 and 3 and inthe embodiment illustrated each of these tongues is provided withintegral ears 7 and 8 formed by lengthening slot 3 at each end thereofso that it is longer than slot 2, providing perpendicular extensions tothe ends of slot 3 towards slot 2 and further extensions 9 and 10parallel to the main portion of slot 3 and extending towards slot 4.

To form the socket tongues 5 and 6 are each bent in the same directionaway from the plane of sheet 1 along the lines of the joins of thetongues to the remainder of the sheet. The join between tongue 5 andsheet 1 extends in a line between points 11 and 12 and the join betweentongue 6 and sheet 1 extends in a line between points 13 and 14. Oncompletion of this operation it will be seen that two side bridges 15and 16 are left joining the two halves of the sheet and these sidebridges are then drawn down in the same direction as tongues 5 and 6 soas to bring the two tongues together until the gap between them is ofthe required size to receive a pin.

7 3,000,403 Patented Oct. 23., 1962 The completed socket contact isshown in FIG. 2 in which like parts have like reference numerals toFIG. 1. It will be seen that the socket contact is in the form of atrough extending across sheet 1 which trough has an open base extendingalong a portion thereof the sides of the open base portion being severedfrom the remainder of the trough to define the tongues 5 and 6. If a pinis inserted into the socket in a direction from left to right in FIG. 2the entry portion of the pin will be guided by ears 7 and 8 which willif necessary cause tongues 5 and 6 to be deflected slightly along bendlines 1112 and 13-14. The spring action of the two side bridges 15 and16, which now have a U-sh-ape, ensures that tongues 5 and 6 resilientlycontact the sides of the pin. Furthermore the socket as a whole iscapable of alignment when a pin is not quite in the correct positionrelative to the socket by the spring action of side pieces 15 and 16which Will allow opening of the socket perpendicularly to the planes oftongues 5 and 6 and will also bend with the tongues to accommodate a pinnot inserted exactly perpendicularly to the plane of the sheet. Afurther degree of self-aligning can be provided by fixing sheet 1 at asingle fixing hole 17 only. With the hole 17 of suitable size to accepta terminal, the latter could be used for fixing the sheet 1.

What I claim is:

l. A socket contact comprising a single sheet of bendable metal havingthree parallel bends extending across the sheet to form a trough portionjoining two coplanar portions, the base of said trough portion beingopen-ended along part of the line of bend to allow passage therethroughof a contact pin, and the sides of said open-ended part being severedfrom the remainder of the sides of the trough and bent to form angularlyprojecting tongues attached bendably along the lines of the two outerbends to regions of said coplanar portions intermediate the ends of saidtrough.

2. A socket contact as defined in claim 1 in which the outer of saidparallel bends extend only part way across said tongues, the remainingportions of said tongues having integral ears cut-out of said coplanarportions and extending in the opposite direction to the direction ofsaid tongues.

-3. A socket contact as defined in claim 1 in which a single fixing holeis provided in one of the coplanar portions of the metal sheet.

4. A spring metal socket contact consisting of a single sheet ofbendable metal formed to provide along opposite edges parallel U-shapedbridges defining the ends of a trough with coplanar base portionsextending oppositely from the open end of the trough, and opposed spacedtongues bendably joined to said base portions intermediate said bridgesalong parallel axes in the common plane of said base portions at theopen end of said trough and projecting in spaced relation in the samedirection as said bridges, said trough defining bridges resilientlypermitting separation of said tongues upon insertion of a pintherebetween.

5. In the socket contact defined in claim 4, guide ears on each tongueprojecting from the juncture of said tongues with said base portions andin the opposite direction from said tongues.

6. A spring metal socket contact consisting of a single sheet ofbendable metal formed to provide along two opposite edges parallelU-sh-aped bridges having legs joined to opposite coplanar base portions,said bridges bot-h projecting in the same direction from the plane ofsaid base portions and the juncture of each bridge leg with theassociated base portion being aligned with the juncture of thecorresponding leg of the other bridge with that References Cited in thefile of this patent base portion, and opposed spaced tongues cut out ofsaid metal sheet and bendably joined to said base portions in- UNITEDSTATES PATENTS termediate the bridges along lines that pass through the1,780,778 MacFadden Nov. 4, 1930 juncture of the bridge legs with theassociated base pop 5 1,805,487 Johnson May 19, 1931 tions, said tonguesprojecting away from said base por- OTHER REFERENCES tions in the samedirection as said bridges and out of contact with aid bridge Germanprinted application V-7,269, May 30, 1956.

